Category: Physical activity

Is Occupational Physical Activity Harmful to Health?

  A recent webinar from the National Occupational Research Agenda’s Cancer, Reproductive, Cardiovascular, and Other Chronic Disease Prevention (CRC) cross-sector council describes research related to the potential effects of occupational physical activity on workers’ cardiovascular health. This blog summarizes the webinar and discusses the differences between (1) leisure-time physical activity, and (2) occupational physical activity Read More >

Posted on by Taylor Shockey, PhD, MPH; Tyler Quinn, PhD; Liwei Chen, MD, PhD; Niklas Krause, MD, MPH, PhD1 Comment

Long-Haul Truck Driver Health Survey Results

  The most recent issue of CDC Vital Signs highlights a few of the safety risks faced by truck drivers. Truck drivers also face health risks that can affect their livelihood. Limited illness and injury data for long-haul truck drivers prompted the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to conduct the National Survey of Read More >

Posted on by Karl Sieber, Ph.D.31 Comments

Prolonged Standing at Work

  The National Retail Federation forecasts that retailers and merchants will hire between 730,000 and 790,000 seasonal workers this holiday season.[i] Many of these workers, such as sales associates and cashiers, have little, if any, opportunity to sit during their work shift. Increasingly, workers across a variety of occupations are required to stand for long periods Read More >

Posted on by Robert B. Dick, PhD26 Comments

Occupations with High Obesity Prevalence in Washington State

  If work and the workplace contribute to poor health behaviors, should employers attempt to improve those behaviors?  It likely is in the employer’s best interest to do so. Poor health behaviors can lead to chronic disease.  Workers with chronic disease may be at higher risk for workplace injury, have more absenteeism, and diminished productivity Read More >

Posted on by Wendy Lu, MPH; David Bonauto, MD, MPH; Joyce Fan, PhD;Casey Chosewood, MD; Sara E. Luckhaupt,MD, MPH 12 Comments

NIOSH Takes a Stand

Over the past year, NIOSH and its Total Worker HealthTM Program have been traveling the country sharing the evidence and benefits of comprehensively integrating health protection with health promotion, including workplace programs that encourage physical activity, weight loss and stress management.   Recently, we launched an internal NIOSH pilot program  to explore the use of sit Read More >

Posted on by L. Casey Chosewood, MD and Constance C. Franklin, MPA 63 Comments

VHA’s Success with Increasing Movement at Work

How can we help keep employees from becoming office potatoes?  It is a fact that a person who leads a sedentary lifestyle (commonly referred to as a couch potato) is at a higher risk of health problems such as high blood pressure, heart disease, and certain cancers, but lately we have been hearing that sitting Read More >

Posted on by Ebi Awosika, MD, MPH 35 Comments